Products Liability Law Reporter

Sue Smith, who was in her 40s, was driving her car on a township roadway when she drove over a manhole that had been on the street for a number of years but had just been replaced with a new cover approximately an hour earlier. The cover displaced from the frame on which it had been sitting, popped up beneath Smith’s car, and caused her to lose control of her vehicle, striking a pole and rolling over. Smith suffered several herniated disks in her thoracic spine, a herniated disk in her neck, and a torn shoulder. She has limited use of her right arm and experiences numbness and tingling in her fingers. An insurance agent and office worker, her past and future lost earnings were estimated at between $1 million and $1.8 million.

Smith sued A. Garguile & Sons, Inc., which installed the new manhole cover based on specifications provided by engineer Pennoni Associates, Inc., also a defendant; Neenah Foundry, which manufactured the manhole cover; Knowlton Construction Supplies, which sold the manhole cover; and Valley Township. Among other things, the plaintiff claimed that the manhole cover was defectively designed in that it contained an ill-fitting lid and a rubber-like gasket designed to seal storm water out of the sewer system, which combined to make the cover hazardous.

The jury awarded $500,000. The parties subsequently resolved the case.

Citation: Smith v. A. Garguile & Sons, Inc., No. 2015-03785 (Pa. Ct. Com. Pl. Chester Cnty. Apr. 2018).

Plaintiff counsel: Allan M. Horwitz, Coatesville, Pa.; and Edward McCandless, Paoli, Pa.

Plaintiff experts: Michael Brooks, orthopedics, Thornton, Pa.; and Richard Mandel, orthopedics, Philadelphia.